With the announcement of a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 18th, to be held at the Elmwood Township Hall at 7pm, the Elmwood Township Planning Commission is inviting the public to take a look at the first installment it is proposing for the township's developing new zoning ordinance. Intended to be adopted both into Elmwood's existing zoning ordinance, and to become a part of its new ordinance, the proposed code consists of newly defined standards for the township's Resort-Commercial zoning district, and of newly defined standards for the implementation of Planned Unit Development (PUD) projects. Currently the Resort Commercial district is the only zoning district in Elmwood to accommodate PUD projects.

Elmwood entered into a zoning up-date process in the mid 1990s with a stated goal of producing a new master plan and a new zoning ordinance to support it. After a period of public input and one false start, the township board accepted and unanimously adopted a master plan in 1998. The creation of the plan had been facilitated by consultants Wade Trim Associates while working in conjunction with the Elmwood Planning Commission. The plan received universal support at the planning commission level at the time of its completion as well. With phase one behind them, the Elmwood Planning Commission began work on its new zoning ordinance by hiring consultants from the Gourdie-Fraser engineering firm to assist in putting the zoning code together.

The process never progressed smoothly. Work on the ordinance began almost concurrently with the Planning Commission's involvement with a controversial project known as Lincoln Meadows. Elmwood government insiders at the time were to face court scrutiny based on apparent conflict of interest problems arising from the review of that project, along with criticism stemming from perceived issues with their interpretation of zoning rules. The ongoing battle over the propriety of that development was to run for years pitting citizens on one side against the Township and project developers on the other. While becoming more deeply embroiled in their problems with The Meadows, The same officials were growing more and more alarmed with the zoning ordinance draft they were being presented with by Gourdie-Fraser. Rather than creating the possibility for suburban development as represented by Lincoln Meadows, ordinance drafts written to back up the township's master plan were expressly calling for something more substantially in support of rural living and agricultural uses in the ag-openspace district. Gourdie-Fraser was (and still is) Elmwood's contract engineering firm. At the time they were preparing marina expansion projects, a water system expansion, and were working as consultants for applicants for land use approvals before Elmwood planning staff, boards and commissions. The Gourdie-Fraser planner that had been working on the zoning ordinance project was removed from the job. Over the protests of a vocal minority of planning commissioners and closely engaged members of the public, the Elmwood Planning Commission went on to write permissive development standards into the ordinance in the face of a master plan that required something else, submitting an ordinance that was finally adopted by the Elmwood Board of Trustees late in 2002. By July of 2003 that ordinance had bee rejected at the polls in an overwhelming referendum vote by township voters.

The elected township board of 2000-2004 and its planning commission could never come to grips with accommodating the provisions of the Elmwood Master Plan and accepting the voters' will to have that plan adhered to in a zoning ordinance. The planning commission and its consultant pushed and prodded at the failed ordinance but never addressed the essential elements that lead to its downfall. No progress was made until after the election of 2004.

The election of 2004 introduced several voices that had argued against the defeated zoning ordinance to the township board and administration, and had excused several township officials that been seen as the primary authors of both the Lincoln Meadows and the zoning ordinance debacles. Change was in the air. On top of the election results, it was discovered that appointments to the planning commission had been so hopelessly entangled that it had become impossible to determine which terms were valid, and which seats were lawfully occupied. On the advice of the township attorney the planning commission was dissolved and created anew. In the process many fresh voices became a part of the official discussion. The Board of Trustees hired a new, more independent, planning consultant, and the process has been rejuvenated.

The ordinance up-dates to be presented on Tuesday April 18th are the first fruits of Elmwood's fresh look at zoning issues, and as such offer an interesting first glance into the direction and forms zoning reform is likely to take. Language and standards put forth in the Resort Commercial rewrite are a particular contrast to existing code standards.

Where Elmwood's current ordinance lists possible outdoor recreational uses to be allowed in the district along with secondary commercial and recreational uses that may be constructed, the standards by which the planning commission is to measure the appropriate scale and intensity is left to its interpretation as to conformance with the master plan. Like more conventional ordinances, the proposed code sets out clearly measurable and definable requirements in black and white, requirements designed from the outset to back up Elmwood's master plan. While gray areas regarding the intensity and density of uses are largely eliminated, the flexibility of PUD development will still allow developers to configure uses to best serve successful design.

Developments in the PUD article itself are interesting in their innovation. While accepted and conventional in many areas of the country, Elmwood is presenting a PUD approval process based on the oversight of an independent administrative "Public Hearing Officer", something rarely if ever seen in Michigan. Current PUD application processes are lumbering and ungainly activities based on the presentation to and evaluation by the planning commission of vast quantities of technical data and reports. The commission must review all this, usually relying to a great extent on technical consultants, to make a committee decision on whether projects meet ordinance standards. The proposed Hearing Officer would be an expert independent planner, or an attorney with a municipal or planning specialty. That single administrator would conduct the public hearing where all evidence regarding the application pro or con would be submitted, and make a determination as to the suitability of the application following a detailed point by point review. Questions regarding the Officer's judgment would be taken up by the planning commission on a by request basis.

The striking qualities shared by both these proposals, in stark contrast to Elmwood's current rules, are those that function to de-politicize the interpretation of the rules and the process for approval. Its easy to see that the current authors are keenly aware of what has gone before in the township, and are striving to create easy to understand, easy to enforce, and easier to process zoning rules that support the provisions of the master plan.

While some of the standards presented in these two new Articles are deserving of further discussion, for instance residential development can still take place on a metes and bounds basis at 1 unit per 5 acres—a standard commentators on every side of the land use debate in Elmwood agree is a recipe for sprawl, one can only be impressed with the contrast these standards and procedures make in comparison to the existing codes.

It appears that Elmwood officials are determined to close the loopholes and define the gray areas that for years have caused the township to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to argue over interpretations of its obsolescent and contradictory zoning ordinance. It seems that the authority for direction and the object of the standards that are being created, finally, is the township master plan.